Omar actor binged on coke while filming 'The Wire'

HBO

HBO

Jill RosenThe Baltimore Sun

Michael K. Williams, who played Omar in "The Wire," is talking about his years of drug abuse and saying he's surprised it didn't lead to him ending up in a body bag.

Williams tells the Newark Star-Ledger that while he was playing Omar in the Baltimore-based HBO series, he was doing cocaine and marijuana and hanging around with felons on some of the scarier streets of Newark.

“I was playing with fire,” Williams tells the paper. “It was just a matter of time before I got caught and my business ended up on the cover of a tabloid or I went to jail or, worse, I ended up dead. When I look back on it now, I don’t know how I didn’t end up in a body bag.

“Eventually, I got so sick and tired of this charade. No one who was in my circle, who knew me as Mike, was allowing me to get high. I had to slip away to do drugs. I had to hide it. I’d be gone for days at a time. I was lonely in that part of my life. I was broke, broken and beat up. Exhausted. Empty. I finally said, ‘I can’t do this no more.’ I didn’t want to end up dead.”

Williams, who also stars in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," tells the Star-Ledger he's talking about his addiction now in hopes that he can convince others to get clean.

“I thought, ‘Why me? Why did I get spared?’ I should’ve been dead,” Williams told the paper. “I have the scars. I’ve stuck my head in the lion’s mouth. Obviously, God saved me for a purpose. So, I decided to get clean and then come clean. I’m hoping I can reach that one person.”